Shangri Lingua

How to say “fire” in Thai

ไฟ

fai

/faj/

ไฟ means fire, light.

Pronunciation and usage

Tone: mid

This covers fire, lights and electricity. รถไฟ (rót fai), “fire vehicle”, is a train, and ไฟฟ้า (fai fáa), “sky fire”, is electricity.

Reading the romanization: the mark over a vowel shows its tone. bp and dt are a p and a t with no puff of air, while plain p, t and k have the puff. The IPA shows the exact sounds, and Learn the IPA explains how to read it.

Examples

  • ปิดไฟก่อนนอน

    bpìt fai gòn non/pìt faj kɔ̀ːn nɔːn/

    Turn off the light before bed.

How it’s spelled

Thai is written in a fixed order, which isn’t always the order you hear. Here’s each letter of ไฟ in the order you’d write it.

  • ไ

    The vowel “ai”. Written first, but heard after the consonant.

    sara ai mai malai

    Tall, with a wave across the top. Compare ใ.

  • ฟ

    “f” starts the word.

    fo fan, from ฟัน (teeth)Low class

    Same as พ, but the right side rises tall.

Why the tone is mid

  1. It starts with ฟ, which is low class.
  2. There’s no tone mark, so the kind of syllable decides.
  3. It ends on a vowel that always counts as live.
  4. Low class and live gives a mid tone.

New to consonant classes and live or dead syllables? See how Thai tones work.

Learn to write it

The Shangri Lingua app teaches ไฟ in its Thai writing course. You write the word one letter at a time, with your finger or Apple Pencil, and the app checks each letter and gives you more help if you get stuck. Get it on the App Store.

More nature and weather

Browse all Thai vocabulary.